Thirteen new COVID-19 quarantine cases have been recorded in the Northern Division.

According to the Ministry of Health, these individuals are part of the repatriation program for the North.

Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong says there is ongoing surveillance conducted for all repatriates.

The Ministry says of the 700 travelers to the North, 60 quarantine test results are of concern.

This is for the 7-day period from last week Wednesday to Tuesday this week.

Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong says all the 60 persons were fully vaccinated and had tested negative before their travel.

He says from this 60, ten cases are potentially infectious and are being isolated.

He adds home quarantine measures have been activated for their primary contacts.

A further 31 cases are considered non-infectious or at very low risk of being infectious.

Dr Fong says 19 cases were weakly positive, however, the Ministry awaits repeat test results from the Fiji CDC laboratory while they remain under home quarantine.

Vaccination coverage for the North is more than 90 percent for the first dose and more than 75 percent for the second dose.

The Ministry is currently reconciling this data with repatriating Northerners who received vaccines on Viti Levu.

However, Dr Fong says they remain on track to go beyond 80 percent before the 11th of November.

The second dose vaccination coverage for the Bua sub-division remains a concern based on the MOH vaccination coverage data.

The Northern Medical Team is working with the Commissioner Northern Division team and Ministry of Economy on ration supply for cases and family members on restricted movement protocol.

The Minister will be leading a team to the North together with the Community Engagement team from various Ministries next Tuesday to help escalate the second dose coverage, especially in Bua.

This will include a special dispensation to reduce vaccination interval to six weeks for AstraZeneca.

All clinical support measures to mitigate the increase in COVID 19 cases and cases with severe COVID-19 have been set up with emphasis on Nabouwalu and Labasa Hospitals.

Meanwhile, 50 new COVID 19 cases have been recorded of which 35 were recorded on Tuesday and 15 in the last 24 hours ending at 8am yesterday.